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In this file, I have some exercises I've found useful for moving a tune from one position to another. (By position, I mean the way you hold your fingers over the frets. In the first position, your fingers one through four are held over frets one through four. In the second position, your first finger is held over the second fret, the second finger over the third fret, the third finger over the fourth fret, and the fourth finger over the fifth fret. In the third position, your first finger is held over the third fret. And so on . . . ) You should probably look at the strings file first, if you haven't already. The riff that I used in that file, I also use here. Look at Table B below, describing the "Rock and Roll Riff". Look at the second row, listing the notes in the key of G. They are played on strings five and six. The string and fret are listed in the third row. (Go to the strings file for an explanation of the notation.) After you're comfortable with playing the riff that way, increase every fret by one. (It's best to move your hand to the second position to do this. When you press down on the second fret, use your first finger. For the third fret, use your second finger. And so on ... ) The result is the same tune, but in the key of Ab. You have moved every note up in pitch one-half step, or one fret. Next, move the tune up one more fret, to the key of A. The finger movements are the same as before, but now you're in the third position. Each note is one-half step higher in pitch than before. |
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| TABLE B. Position Changes. | |||||||||||||||||||
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It should be clear that you can keep raising the pitch of each note (and changing the key) by increasing the frets – until you run out of room (it's hard to go past fret 15 on an acoustic; you can to about 22 on an electric). Look at the next rows (key of C). The fret numbers are just three higher than before; the strings are the same. The next rows (alt key of C) are from the strings exercises document. They give the same notes as the key of C rows, but on different strings. Reduce the string by one (from six to five, or four to three), and reduce the frets by five (from eight to three, or six to one, or five to zero) to get the same notes. Let's try another set of rows. The key of F rows in Table C are derived by moving the first key of C down one string – from five and six to four and five. Alternatively, you can take the alt key of C, and increase the frets by five. Let's try one more set of rows. Change to the key of E. The notes are easy to figure out; they are just a half-step lower in pitch than the key of F. But let's move the notes to another string. The first note will be E; let's try that on the third string. Since the fourth fret of the third string (3:4) is B, the fifth will be C, the seventh D, and the ninth E. Look at the rows now to see the fingering. If you look at the fingering in the key of E, you will notice that subtracting four from the fret, and subtracting one from the string, gives you the same notes. (So 3:9 becomes 2:5 – third string, fret nine becomes second string, fret five – both give E.) This happens because the fourth fret on the third string gives the same note as an open second string. (For every other string, the fifth fret, not the fourth, of one string gives the open for the next string.) You can also go the other way. The results appear in the alt key of E in Table C. Add one to each string, and add four (or five) to the fret. So 3:9 becomes 4:14 and 2:10 becomes 3:14. (Add four to the fret when going from string two to string three; add five when going up from any other string.) To check this, remember that each string repeats after twelve frets (see this file). So 4:14 is the same note (one octave higher) as 4:2 (which is E); 3:14 and 3:2 (which is A) are the same; 3:12 is the same as 3:O (third string, open, which is G); 3:11 will thus be Gb. |
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| TABLE C. MORE POSITION CHANGES. | |||||||||||||||||||
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So, here are the rules for changing positions/strings: |
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Add one to each fret, without changing the strings, to change the key and raise the pitch of all notes by a half step. (So key will change from C to Db or E to F or A to Gb, etc.)
Subtract one from each fret, without changing the strings, to change the key and lower the pitch of all notes by a half step. (Key will change from C to B or F to E or G to Gb, etc.) Keep the frets the same when you change strings, except when moving from string three to two, or two to three. This will change the key, by two and one-half steps (or two steps when moving from string three to two or two to three). The key will be raised when decreasing strings; it will be lowered when increasing strings. Add twelve to each fret to keep the key the same (notes will be one octave higher). Reduce each string by one and reduce each fret by five (or four) to keep the key and notes the same. Raise each string by one and raise each fret by five (or four) to keep the key and notes the same. If your frets become too high, lower them by subtracting twelve from each fret (and keeping the notes the same but one octave lower). |
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